It's Homecoming weekend at Penn State, especially for one former Nittany Lions All-American.

Matt Millen returns to Beaver Stadium for the first time in 30 years as the color analyst on ABC Sports' coverage of the Penn State-Minnesota game Saturday at 3:30.

The 51-year-old Millen is in his first year with ABC and ESPN working college football games after he spent eight mostly miserable years (2000-08) as president of the Detroit Lions.

He was an outstanding defensive tackle at Penn State from 1976-79 before winning four Super Bowl rings during a 12-year NFL career as a linebacker.

"I haven't sat in the stands at Beaver Stadium since 1975," Millen said.

It was his only game there as a spectator. Penn State was recruiting him as a defensive end out of Whitehall, and he was invited to watch the Nittany Lions play Kentucky.

He told an anecdote from that visit, which underscores his honesty, his confidence and his sense of humor.

After the game, the Penn State coaches took Millen and other recruits to Rec Hall, where the football offices were located, for a reception. Coach Joe Paterno made his way to Millen and asked him what he thought of the game, a 10-3 Lions win.

"I'll never forget this," Millen said. "I told him, 'If I can't start for you right now, don't recruit me.' That's what I thought. I can remember who was playing the position. His name was Dennis Zmudzin. I think he was No. 81.

"I was watching him that day. I kept thinking: 'I can do that. I'm better than that kid.' So when Joe asked me, that's what I told him."

It was clear that Millen had little inhibition. He went on to start four years for Paterno, teaming with Bruce Clark to form a devastating combination at defensive tackle. They helped the Nittany Lions post back-to-back 11-1 seasons in 1977-78 before injuries cost them much of their senior seasons.

Before that year, 1979, Millen and Paterno had a confrontation that the coach brought up Tuesday during his weekly press conference.

Millen, who had been named one of the team captains, refused to complete the preseason conditioning runs that Paterno requires to this day.

"I ran the first one, and when it came time to run the second one, I tightened up," Millen recalled. "It felt like somebody jumped on my back. Then I remember telling him, 'If I have to chase a guy for a half-mile, he's going to score.'

"I thought that was funny, but he didn't."

Paterno claims to have stripped Millen of his captaincy, but he's still listed as one of the three 1979 captains in the Penn State media guide.

The two have remained in contact over the years. When he was with Detroit, Millen visited Penn State for scouting and evaluation. The longevity of the 82-year-old Paterno only slightly surprises Millen, who lives in Bucks County.

"It doesn't surprise me because he's just a despot," he said. "He's a nice dictator. That's the part that doesn't change. It can't change because that's his style. He still recognizes that it's still about people.

"The part that would surprise me is his philosophy. Joe always preached being well-rounded and all that kind of stuff. He probably woke up one day in his 60s and said: 'What am I going to do? I can't run for office. I'm not going to be a professor.

" 'I've been coaching for 100 years. I guess I'll coach for another 100.' "

Millen has always been interested in coaching himself, but he became a star as an NFL analyst in the 1990s with CBS and Fox after his retirement. His everyman approach connected with viewers. Still does.

Besides his work with ABC and ESPN, he will serve as the lead analyst on the NFL Network's Thursday night games this season.

"It keeps me close to the game," Millen said. "I'm a football junkie. I'm still learning college football. It's a different game than pro football. I'm still trying to get a feel for it."